1. Field
The technology of the present application relates generally to a virtual assistant, and more specifically to a personal virtual assistant that receives physiological information regarding a user and provides the user advice relating to the physiological information.
2. Background
Electronic devices are prevalent in most individual's daily lives. For example, a large segment of the population has a cellular telephone. The widespread use of the cellular telephone has made it a convenient platform for many services. Some currently provided services include communication, data transfers, positioning services, such as, for example, GPS services, games, internet access, banking services, and the like.
The aging population also has numerous electronic devices to help monitor and track health information (“generally referred to as “Electronic Medical Devices” or “EMDs”). For example, heart monitors are available to monitor a person's heart rate, variable heart rate, or the like. Moreover, diabetics use blood glucose monitors to track whether they need medication, ingest food or drink, or the like. Unfortunately, most of these devices require the diligence of the person to use and report the findings. For example, self monitoring blood glucose typically involves a person taking readings and creating a log that may be faxed for evaluation.
Recently, there has been a trend to use the electronic devices carried by many people, such as, for example, cellular telephones, to receive data from the EMDs. For example, a person with a pulmonary deficiency may be required to periodically use a blood oxygen monitor to monitor the oxygen content of their blood. The blood oxygen monitor, when used, would transmit the information to the cellular telephone platform, or another type of computing platform, such as a personal computer that is connected to the network. The transmission from the blood oxygen monitor to the cellular telephone may be wireless or via a data port. The information transmitted to the cellular telephone would be transmitted via a wireless network to a remote server. On an alarm condition, for example, if the blood oxygen level dropped below 85%, the remote server (or cellular telephone) would trigger an application of medicine, alert medical personal, such as a primary care provider, or the like.
While the above provides an emergency response, it does not provide any mechanism for intervention prior to a medical emergency. There is therefore a need in the art for a personal virtual assistant that can review information from Electronic Medical Devices and provide feedback and intervention advice prior to an emergency condition.